Class with Jesse B, Bryce, Miriam, and Ben. Stretch and requirements, placed Jesse and Bryce together while I worked with Miriam and Ben. Instructed Miriam on Head Block, and Ben on Decap Cut. After requirements, we all reviewed Jumping Tiger 1 some more. We got gear on during the break and Jesse, Bryce, and I had a total of 24 one on matches amongst us.
Tag: portland dojo
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Class with Miriam and Ben, all other students called out. Stretch and then trained Ben on Given Steel, Defensive Stance, and Full Circle Head and Neck cuts, reviewing them for Miriam. While Ben practiced those, I reviewed Miriam’s Decap and Leg cuts, then instructed on Thrust. After a break, I covered Sword Salute and Sword Honor, then we practiced combat movement. Wrapped up with working on Jumping Tiger 1, an intro for Ben and review for Miriam.
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Class with Jesse B, Bryce, and Miriam. Ben had their second observation. Stretch and requirements, paired Jesse and Bryce while I worked with Miriam. We reviewed her current techniques and I instructed her on Decap and Leg full circle cuts. I also worked with Jesse B on Cutting Pattern 3 more. We then all reviewed Jumping Tiger 1, including instructing Miriam on it. After the break, during which we geared up, we had a number of one-on-one matches, and then finished with three multi-opponent matches.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Miriam, starting her on 1-handed sword tonight, going over Defensive Stance and Full Circle Head and Neck cuts, and Bryce worked solo mostly, though I joined him for his cutting patterns and reviewed a few of his practiced moves. After the break, we did continuous full circle cuts (me 100 steel, bryce 100 bokken, miriam 50 bokken). Next we did Refined Strikes, Bryce with me and I had Miriam practice her few cuts with one of the pels. We did a couple rounds of Advanced Response training, and then finished with Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Jesse B tonight. Stretch and then we went through our respective requirements at length, after which we worked on The Deflections a bit more. After a break, I instructed him on Cutting Pattern 3.
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Class with Jesse B, Belladonna, Bryce, Risa, and Chris. Stretch and requirements. I placed Bryce and Risa together, Chris with Jesse, and I reviewed Belladonna. We then did a focus session on Jumping Tiger 1. After the break, during which I scattered bricks and sundry about the dojo for altered terrain for the enter second half of class, we started with 100 continuous full circle cuts (Jesse, Belladonna, and I with steel), then machine gun drill, first just head cuts, then just neck or leg cuts. We finished with an elimination round of Add-On with a max of 10 exchanges.
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Class with Bryce and Risa tonight, and Miriyam observed their second class. Stretch and had Bryce and Risa go through requirements while I reviewed mine solo. We then briefly touched on Cutting Pattern 2 review, and then did a study session on The Tradition. After the break, we did 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself steel), refined strikes against the pels, then refined strikes with an uke, and finished with several rounds of Advanced Response training.
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Class with Jesse B and Chris. Miriyam observed class. Stretch and had Jesse and Chris go through requirements, then took Chris aside and administered his Green Braid Evaluation. We then reviewed Thorn for a bit before taking a break. After the break, we had a total of 28 1-on-1 matches.
Conditions ranged from moist to hard rain throughout the class, though footing in the dojo was fine, it hasn’t been continuously wet enough to get overly soggy yet, plus the opened up main space provides a better quality hardpack.
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Class with Jesse B and Risa. Stretch, after which I reviewed each of their reqs up through cutting patterns, then paired them to go through practiced moves and kata while I observed. We did a study session on Double Thrust, focusing especially on the footwork and movement.
After the break, we started with 100 full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel). We then then scattered the balance materials (bricks, cabers, smaller cinder blocks, and some trimmed tree trunks and large limbs) around the dojo space and spent a while doing “The Floor is Lava” (Balance 1), first with no bokken, then carrying the bokken, and then lastly we took turns so we could practice blocks and cuts. We finished with a three person variant of silent sword (I opted for boffer for this first time).
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Class with Jesse B and Chris. Stretch and observed them going through their respective requirements together. Study session on Jumping Tiger 2. During the break, got our sparring gear on and then had 24 total matches (Jesse and I using steel, and I used my one hander for all matches).
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, and Chris. Stretch and requirements (I paired Jesse with Chris, and I matched Risa on White Rope reqs). We then did a focus session on The Mantis. After the break, we did 100 full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel) and then a couple rounds of advanced response training. We finished with dagger training, reviewing the critical targets and then doing Refined Strikes with daggers.
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, and Chris. Stretch and requirements (Risa with Chris, myself with Jesse). Continued drilling The Tradition some more, working to build up that reflex and muscle memory. After the break, we had a total of 34 one on one matches. Jesse and I sparred each other with steel. I alternated sets of two handed and one handed. The temperature was somewhere in the 80s, which made for hot sweaty sparring, still pretty reasonable for mid summer.
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Class with Jesse B and Chris. Stretch and requirements (they worked together while I reviewed mine solo with two handed steel). I reviewed the six deflections with Jesse and then we all did a focus session on The Tradition. After the break, we did 100 full circle cuts (myself two hand steel (and Jesse)) followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. We set down our boken and worked a bit on a drill passing just by your opponent, relating it back to The Tradition (among other things). We returned to our boken and I paired off alternately with Jesse and Chris for several rounds of Silent Boken.
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Class with Chris. Stretch and we both did his Green Braid requirements, then reviewed both Thorn and The Tradition for a bit. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (myself two handed steel), a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, a few rounds of Advanced Response training, and finished with a couple rounds of Add-On.
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Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Risa. Gabby and Alex observed and are very interested so far. Stretch and requirements, then a review of The Illusion. During the break we got in gear, then in the second half had 33 one-on-one matches total. I alternated between my two handed style versus sword and dagger (noted in logs with asterisk), and Jesse and I did steel with each other and boken with Bryce.
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Class with Risa. Stretch and our respective requirements (I did mine with sword and dagger). We then worked on Akira for a while. After a break, we 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself one handed steel), then some unarmored parry (aka switch parry), followed by unarmored initiative parry (i.e. like centered cuts in that the role switches if there is a pause in the attacks). Wrapped up with Advanced Response Training using shinai.
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Special Arms & Armor day. Worked with Risa to instruct them on boken construction. Also assisted Bryce with boken repair and some new boken construction.
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Class with Risa. Stretch and once through our respective requirements (I used one handed for everything tonight). Took a break, then did continuous full circle cuts (myself 100 steel one handed while holding my steel dagger in off hand). Next we did a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, then a couple rounds of Add-On, and we finished with boffer parry (one attack, three attack, and switch variants).
I had to cancel the last couple classes due to schedule conflicts.
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Class with Risa and Chris.
I ruminated on the nature of martial training, and indeed many sports, how we push ourselves outside our comfort zone in order to discover our true limits, whether it be environmental (rain, snow, heat, cold), physical (thousands of strikes, nonstop battles), or other.
Stretch and requirements once through (myself full solo reqs with steel). Focus session on The I Move. Break. 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself steel). Advanced Response training, Refined Strikes, and finished with round robin limited target parry (we stood in a triangle and defended from one direction and then attacked the other direction, started with just head to get the flow, then added neck, and finished with any of head, neck, or decap).
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Class with Jesse B. Stretch and requirements for both of us. We reviewed Kata Ni a bit, then reviewed his steel requirements which I matched, including a little extra time on Cutting Pattern 2 and worked a bit on Jumping Tiger 2 in steel.
After a break, we did 100 continuous full circle cuts with steel, a couple rounds of refined strikes, reviewed draw cuts a bit, and finished with a couple rounds of Add-On.
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Special combined PNW weekend class with Kaiden Severer, myself, Jesse B, Bryce, Amanda, Risa, and Anne. Started with a stretch and then a couple times through requirements so that Severer and I could work with and/or observe multiple students. I then lead a focus session on Thorn and Severer lead one on Jumping Tiger 1. We took a short break and then resumed with a round of 5 minute non-stop battles using boffers. We took another short break to gear up and finished with running two sparring circles martialed by Severer and myself. Anne was unable to spar and thus logged for one circle, the other circle was logged by whomever was not currently in.
For the sparring, I largely wielded one handed with some short and buckler shield as well, and of course Severer and I faced with steel.
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, and Chris. Stretch and requirements (paired Jesse with Chris, I matched Risa on White Rope requirements). Did a study session on Thorn, emphasizing aggressively closing the distance to interrupt the opponent’s technique. After the break, we did 100 continuous full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel), and a couple rounds of Refined Strikes. Next we had several passes through a gauntlet, first just the wooden pel dummies, then added us in amongst the pels as additional targets. We finished with some multi opponent training, putting one person in the middle with the other three arrayed around them, announcing their attack and then making only head or neck attacks with the person in the center only blocking.
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, Chris. Stretch and requirements, paired Chris with Risa while Jesse and I went through ours. Reviewed Jumping Tiger 2. Got into protective gear during the break and for the second half had sparring. There was only a brief spate of rain, but their were a number of slippery, mucky, soft areas within the sparring boundaries. Jesse and I did about half of our matches with bokken, half with steel.
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Class with Risa and Chris. Stretch and requirements. I reviewed Chris first, then paired Risa with Chris to go through their requirements while I soloed mine. We took some time to do a focus session on The Mantis then took a break. We started the second half with 100 continuous full circle cuts, then a few rounds of Refined Strikes. Finished with Balance 1 & 2.
It was a steady rain all class with a good bit of soggy, mushy areas throughout the dojo making for uncertain footing.
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Class with Risa. Stretch and our respective requirements full through. We then did a focus session on The Tradition. After a break, we did 50 continuous full circle cuts, Advanced Response Training, and finished with one round of Add-On.
(I was back to two handed tonight. Last week class was cancelled due to no students.)